to be preferable to the form V_i_rgil which has for a long time been
in common use. Many of the best Latin scholars are of opinion that the
proper spelling is V_e_rgil from the Latin V_e_rgilius, as the poet
himself wrote it. "As to the fact," says Professor Frieze, "that the
poet called himself Vergilius, scholars are now universally agreed. It
is the form found in all the earliest manuscripts and inscriptions. In
England and America the corrected Latin form is used by all the best
authorities."


II. THE GODS AND GODDESSES.

It is said that Vergil wrote the AEneid at the request of the Emperor
Augustus, whose family--the Ju'li-i--claimed the honor of being
descended from AEneas, through his son I-u'lus or Ju'lus. All the
Romans, indeed, were fond of claiming descent from the heroes whom
tradition told of as having landed in Italy with AEneas after escaping
from the ruins of Troy. The city of Troy, or Il'i-um, so celebrated in
ancient song and story, was situated on the coast of Asia Minor, not
far from the entrance to what is now the Sea of Mar'mo-ra. It was
besieged for ten years by a vast army of the Greeks (natives of Greece
or Hel'las) under one of their kings called Ag-a-mem'non. Homer, the
greatest of the ancient poets, tells about this siege in his famous
poem, the Il'i-ad. We shall see later on how the siege was brought to
an end by the capture and destruction of the city, as well as how
AEneas escaped, and what afterwards happened to him and his
companions.

Meanwhile we must learn something about the gods and goddesses who
play so important a part in the story. At almost every stage of the